Climate change affects us all and we need to act now to drastically reduce our carbon output. It is increasingly apparent that more of us are committed to doing so but that there isn't always the means to carry out our commitment.

The Carbon Connections Development Fund was managed by UEA and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England was set up to support organisations with innovative projects for carbon reduction.

Carbon Connections was based within the Adapt Low Carbon Group at UEA, which is recognised as a world leading research centre for environmental sciences. It already has a well established Carbon Reduction programme (CRed), which was set up as a direct result of UEA’s focus on outreach activity: enabling research to achieve results. Carbon Connections is an investment body, set up by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to seek out, encourage and invest in carbon-saving innovation either through technological advance or behavioural change.

- The programme had a fixed life span, starting in October 2006 and completed at the end of March 2009 although some projects were able to obtain follow on funding following that date.

- The key deliverable was a £3.5m investment fund for supporting projects driving low carbon developments.

- The key criteria for eligibility to a Carbon Connections project were demonstration of a reduction in carbon emissions, innovation, knowledge transfer and sustainability.

In the first phase, the project was rolled out to all universities in England attracting applications from over one third of them.

All funds have now been allocated and Carbon Connections has begun a 12 month monitoring period of the successful projects. Carbon Connections will also seek funding to continue the Carbon Connections model.

Metrics:
- 316 expressions of interest
- 107 full applications 
-  27 funded projects

Project categories:
-  Microgeneration 
-  Waste management 
-- Biofuels 
-  Carbon sequestration 
-  Sustainable construction 
-  Engineering 
-  Domestic heating 
-  Chemical processes
-  Combined heat process 
-  Manufacturing 
-  Adaptation